In plane sight: Bremont

British watchmaker Bremont has joined forces with comic artist Adi Granov to customise an aircraft with bite to celebrate the film Venom

Watches & Jewellery 4 Dec 2018

The Bremont Brothers' custom painted Broussard features Venom artwork by comic artist Adi Granov

The Bremont Brothers' custom painted Broussard features Venom artwork by comic artist Adi Granov

Bremont watches are all about British luxury mechanical timepieces, enduring classics that are inspired by aviation and military, British engineering and adventure. The team, led by co-founder brothers Nick and Giles English, also work closely with elite military units to provide bespoke watches to suit their needs based on models from the collection. Part of the kit of combat personnel worldwide, they are robustly constructed to withstand the rigours of high altitude or undersea depths.

The recently launched U-2/51JET watch nods at design cues from a particular military piece commissioned by the members of the RAF’s 100 Squadron – the first unit formed for night bombing in 1917, which provides ‘aggressor’ aircraft for air combat training – to complement their Hawk T1 jet aircraft. Its stealthy appearance inspired the jet-black timepiece featuring a black smoked glass open caseback. Bremont’s darkest watch to date has a hardened stainless-steel DLC (diamond-like carbon) case, an automatic movement and a 38-hour power reserve.

It can also boast a not-so-stealthy starring role in Venom, the latest action-packed Marvel makeover, worn throughout the film on the wrist of actor Tom Hardy, friend of the brand, as he plays the part of complex anti-hero journalist Eddie Brock and the lethal protector. Known for his roles as dark and sinister villains, Hardy’s character struggles between good and evil, but his timekeeping is always flawless.

The Bremont Boys engagingly don’t hold back on the passion and commitment front, and fittingly they embraced a further partnership with Sony Pictures to team up with comic art and aviation enthusiast Adi Granov to paint one of the brothers’ prize vintage planes from their private collection. Granov depicted Venom, a character known for his menacing teeth, on the nose of the Broussard, a former French military aircraft, inspired by the iconic shark tooth design painted on many World War II fighter planes. He gave it a modern twist and also blacked out the fuselage, bringing Venom to life in the air. Largely considered a military tradition, nose art painting began for practical, rather than aesthetic, reasons – to help identify friendly aircraft. The practice then evolved to express the individuality and personalities of the planes, which was often considered a constraint due to the rigid nature of the military. Fortunately, the Bremont team have fewer restraints and now have a piece of aviation art celebrating their stealthy cinematic collaboration.

The U-2/51JET, £3,995; bremont.com